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Atlanta Fed chief ready to vote for US rate hike in September

Dennis Lockhart, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, has told The Wall Street Journal that the US economy is “ready” for the first increase in domestic interest rates in more than nine years, and that it would take a “significant deterioration” in relevant data to convince him not to vote for a tightening of monetary policy in September.

Lockhart said that that he was not inclined to put too much weight on new data set to be published in the next few weeks unless it is especially weak, but added the main catch for the central bank was that he sees little direct evidence of inflation rising towards the Fed’s 2% target.

His comments follow those of James Bullard, president of the St. Louis Fed, on Friday that “we are in good shape” for a rate increase in September.